With a new final chapter covering recent electronic and technological advances, the second edition of Technology and American Society extends coverage of innovations in industry, home, office, agriculture, transport, constructions, and services into the twenty-first century. Offering a global perspective on the development of American technology, the text is structured around a historical narrative detailing major technological transformations over the last three centuries. With coverage devoted to both dramatic breakthroughs and incremental innovations, Technology and American Society analyzes the cause-and-effect relationship of change and its role in the constant drive for improvement and modernization.

Providing a global perspective on the development of American technology, Technology and American Society offers a historical narrative detailing major technological transformations over the last three centuries. With coverage devoted to both dramatic breakthroughs and incremental innovations, authors Gary Cross and Rick Szostak analyze the cause-and-effect relationship of technological change and its role in the constant drive for improvement and modernization. This fully-updated 3rd edition extends coverage of industry, home, office, agriculture, transport, constructions, and services into the twenty-first century, concluding with a new chapter on recent electronic and technological advances. Technology and American Society remains the ideal introduction to the myriad interactions of technological advancement with social, economic, cultural, and military change throughout the course of American history.

Providing a global perspective on the development of American technology, Technology and American Society offers a historical narrative detailing major technological transformations over the last three centuries. With coverage devoted to both dramatic breakthroughs and incremental innovations, authors Gary Cross and Rick Szostak analyze the cause-and-effect relationship of technological change and its role in the constant drive for improvement and modernization. This fully-updated 3rd edition extends coverage of industry, home, office, agriculture, transport, constructions, and services into the twenty-first century, concluding with a new chapter on recent electronic and technological advances. Technology and American Society remains the ideal introduction to the myriad interactions of technological advancement with social, economic, cultural, and military change throughout the course of American history.

The new Obama administration and the 110th Congress elected in November 2008 will face immediate challenges. Events will not permit a leisurely leadership transition. The prompt appointment of a Presidential science adviser and the nomination of top officials in the new administration with the knowledge and experience to address complex problems will be essential. The concerns of the nation regarding jobs and economic growth, health care, national security, energy, and the environment demand informed action. Each of these concerns-from national security, economic development, health care, and the environment, to education, energy, and natural resources-is touched in essential ways by the nation's science and technology enterprise. This is the fourth in a series of books from the National Academies on the presidential appointment process, each delivered during a presidential election year with the goal of providing recommendations to the President-elect about appointing his senior science and technology leadership and pursuing sustained improvements in the appointments process.

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The Digital Evolution of an American Identity details how the concept of American individualism is challenged by the digital revolution. As digital media alter our print-dominant culture, assumptions regarding the relationship of the individual to the larger community become increasingly problematic. Current arguments regarding freedom of speech and confusion about what is meant by privacy illustrate the nature of the challenge. C. Waite defines individualism as the ways in which the American culture traditionally strives to balance the rights of the individual against the needs of the group. Americans struggle to understand what it means to be responsible both for one’s self and for the welfare of others. They struggle with this not as an academic might, but in concrete and specific cases, often caught at cross-purposes with conflicting goods. This is a historic struggle, intrinsic to the very fabric of America's democratic society, as illustrated by its laws and customs. The American democracy has supported a view of the person as an autonomous individual. Yet that concept of American individualism no longer adequately captures the role of the self in the social world. The digital environment challenges that autonomy by creating new avenues for speech and new forms of social networks. Though the transition from a print-based culture to the digital domain entails a global revolution, American culture will suffer the consequences of that revolution more profoundly than other cultures because the concept of American individualism is foundational to its democratic way of life.